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Thesprotia - Gliki

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Thesprotia - Gliki
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Gliki

The name Glyki comes from a miracle. Saint Donatos killed a dragon that was burrowing at the Acheron fount and was making the water fatal for people and animals. Saint Donatos blessed the water and it became sweet. From this miracle the village Glyki took its name.
Glyki is developing in tourism the last years and so the visitor can feel the tradition of a virgin tourist region. It’s a small agricultural village which has become famous all over the world from its mythic river, Acherontas. You can ascent to the top, at the castle of Ai - Donatos from where the view is magic. Under your feet lies the town and the plain of Paramytia which stretches until the river Aherondas.

Travelling around Glyki village the visitor has the opportunity to visit the "Nekromanteio of Afyra". This involves a boat ride down the coast to the Aherondas River and then up the navigable river as far as the Nekromanteio itself, which is easy to be approached by foot. If you have your own transport take the Preveza road as far as the village of mesopotamos and look out for the sign to Nekromanteio, 1 km off the main road. The Nekromanteio was the ancients' venue for the equivalent of a mondern seance. It was believed as the gates of Hades, the god of underworld, and so it became an oracle of the dead and a sanctuary to Hades and Persephone. Pilgrims made offerings of milk, and the blood of sacrificed animals in the hope that spirits of the departed would communicate with them. The labyrinth of buildings was only discovered in 1958, revealing not only the Nekromanteio itself, but also the monastery of Agios Ioannis Prodromos and grave-yard. The eerie underground vault, the purpose of wich is still not known, could easily have been the meting place for the dead and the living. Threre is a good, colour guidebook written in English by Professor Sotoris Dakaris of the University of Ioannina.
The Skala of Tzavelena - heroine of Souli - is on the right, over the springs. The ascent is relatively easy. The wild landscape, the din of the dead, the greenery around, the view to the plain, rest and at the same time seize with a feeling of awe the soul of the visitor. "Magic and dream the nature". Zalogo - Statue of the women of Souli who sacrificed themselves by jumping off the mountain to escape capture by the troops of Ali Pasha.
The famous mountains of Souli which are a national challenge and invitation to the visitor rise almost 18 km from Glyki. The ascent is easy and short. The tourist, in front of the Parliament of Souli, will come across the wells, he will go uphill to St Donatos , to St Paraskevi and he will reach the hill of Kougi where the Monk Samuel and his few comrades sacrificed themselves in December, 1803. Opposite, he will come in view of the fort of Kiafa; we feel national stir and pride. Finally, he will enjoy the panoramic view of the plain of Fanari - plain of Aherondas.
Aherondas is the natural boundary of the Prefectures of Thesprotia - Preveza. Following the flow of the river one reaches the traditional settlement of Mesopotamos where Nekromandio of the ancient inhabitants of the region is situated. Following the road to the coast one reaches the new settlement of Ammoudia . The river Aherondas flows very close to Ammoudia. (Prefecture of Preveza).
Thirty five km from Paramythia it is worth visiting the beautiful historical town of Parga, with the famous fort, the wonderful beaches and its vast olive groves (Pr. of Preveza).Twelve km from Perdika having the dentelated coastline and the deep blue beaches on your left, you will find Syvota, a beautiful seaside settlement with remarkable tourist substructure. The beaches enchant the visitor (Pr. of Thesprotia).

Forty years ago the Greek archaeologist Sotirios Dakaris discovered a remarkable late fourth- or early third-century B.C. building complex on the hill of St. John Prodromos (John the Baptist), which rises above the Acheron River about 1.5 miles from its mouth at Phanari Bay in Epirus, northwestern Greece.

Its central structure was 72 feet square with extraordinarily thick (about 11 feet) walls of carefully fitted polygonal stone blocks. Below this Dakaris found a subterranean chamber. He identified the building as the famous Nekyomanteion, or Oracle of the Dead, to which Periander, tyrant of Corinth in the sixth century B.C., had sent emissaries to consult his dead wife, Melissa, as recounted in Herodotus.

Dakaris believed it to be the place Homer had in mind in his account of the visit of Odysseus to "the Halls of Hades and Dread Persephone" to consult the dead seer Tiresias about how he might return to Ithaca. The remains of the Nekyomanteion have been preserved.The ancient Greeks believed that the dead (in Greek: “Nekys”, “Nekroi") stayed in the earth as a perishable body while as a soul they were released and found their way to the Underworld through deep gorges, crevices and caves. The souls of the dead did not have ordinary consciousness but had other capabilities not possessed by the living such as the ability to know the future.

Based on such beliefs, the Homeric Odysseus descended to Hades, [the world of the dead], to meet the soul of Teiresias the great diviner to find out what was hidden in his future. In the rhapsody “Nekyia” of the Odyssey we have exact descriptions about the care that should be exercised by the living when approaching the souls of the dead, since the miasma of death was very powerful.

Faith in such beliefs led many among the ancients to visit sites, which were reputed to be entrances to the Underworld in order to receive prophecies from the Oracles of the Dead ("Nekyomanteia") established in these locations. Among the more famous were the temple of Poseidon in Taenaron as well as those in Hermione of Argolis, Kyme in Italy and Herakleia in Pontos. Yet the most important Nekyomanteion by far was the one at Lake Acherousia and the three rivers of Hades, near the Thesprotian city of Ephyra, at the place were according to tradition Odysseus communicated with the dead.

Excavations unearthed a building complex with a rectangular courtyard surrounding a square building, from the 4th century BC, which functioned as the temple and consisted of a central hall with side aisles. Below the central hall was an underground chamber cut into the rock, presumably at the location of an ancient cave. This served as the pitch-dark palace of Hades and Persephone. The arches supporting the roof of the chamber were also the foundation for the floor of the upper chamber. The continuous corridors at three of the sides and the rooms to the north and east have also been attributed to the 4th century. Later, a central court was added to the west as well as more rooms for the pilgrims. From the north gate the pilgrim would pass to the northern corridor and to the left he saw two rooms and a washroom, which would serve him during the period of bodily and psychological purification, which inevitably preceded the entrance to the sanctum.

For a certain period of time, and in total darkness, the pilgrim ate food appropriate for the dead such as broad beans, pork, barley bread and oysters and underwent purification by washing and prayers. The purpose of these procedures was presumably to strengthen the pilgrim's defences against the psychologically powerful contact with the death experience. With yet more severe fasting and meditation the pilgrim would also stay in the northern room of the eastern corridor until the time of the oracle. Then, together with a priest, he would enter the eastern corridor, would sacrifice a sheep and then, holding bloodless offerings in his hand, he would follow a meandric corridor with three ironclad gates, as many as the gates of Hades. He would leave some of his offerings there, and would offer the rest in the central hall, which was the place where the souls of the dead would appear. During the whole process the priest would chant prayers and evoke the dead. The long preparation in such an imposing environment, and the special fasting [and meditations] together with the faith in the appearance of the dead would induce the pilgrim to see the shadows of the dead. The 4th century, however, was a rational century, with less possibility for the psyche of the pilgrims to experience the miracle, so the Oracle took appropriate measures as discovered by the excavations.

Specifically, at the end of the central hall, at the place where the images of the dead were to appear, the archaeologists found wheels, copper catapult gear and ratchets which probably indicate the presence of a crane, which had a human image at one side and a counterweight at the other. The latter were discovered in an adjacent room. Anyway, the pilgrim would exit from the opposite side and would then undergo a three-day purification procedure. From then on he was expected to keep absolute silence about what he had seen and heard and the penalty for revealing the mysteries of Hades was death.

Various votive offering by the faithful have been found dating from the 7th century BC and thereafter, however, it is evident that with the construction of the Hellenistic temple most of the artifacts from the previous period were destroyed. The Romans burned the temple in 167 BC, but traces of habitation after the 1st century have been discovered in the area where the courtyard used to be.




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